Irish offense goes cold despite Falls' hot hand

March 09, 2006|TOM NOIE Tribune Staff Writer

NEW YORK -- On his way back from a post-game interview session Wednesday, Notre Dame guard Colin Falls came to a crossroads in a Madison Square Garden corridor and raised his hands in exasperation. Where, Falls wondered for a second, was the right route back to the locker room? There, a hot shower and dry set of clothes awaited following Notre Dame's 67-63 loss to Georgetown in the first round of the Big East Championship. Falls eventually found his way back to the tiny quarters after also seeing his shooting stroke return. Falls scored a team-high 21 points, including 6-of-11 from 3, for an Irish team that struggled all day to score points, something that rarely happened this season. Having worked through nagging injuries the previous three games, where he failed to score double figures, Falls wasted little time getting going. He hit his first 3 less than two minutes in, then added another one less than 60 seconds later. A third open look from 3 fell after Falls had hit three free throws. Less than seven minutes in, the Irish were up 14-3 and Falls had scored 12. "I got out in transition the first three or four plays of the game," he said. "Chris (Quinn) found me and I made some shots." Georgetown then started running fresh defenders, either Brandon Bowman or Ashanti Cook, at Falls. The Irish guard played the final 13:12 of the first half without a basket. He returned with three more key 3s in the second half, but did not score the final 14:55. "They put the clamps down on 'D'; they were showing on all screens," said Falls. "It made it difficult to get open looks." Falls' six 3-pointers fell two shy of the school record he shares with former Irish guards Matt Carroll and Keith Friel. He has 96 for the season, four away from a school record. Surprise shooter Notre Dame sophomore power forward Rob Kurz is more likely to throw his 6-foot-9, 238-pound frame over the 3-point line while chasing a loose ball than to set up and shoot from beyond the arc. But on Wednesday, Kurz connected on three of four 3-point field goals, both career highs, en route to 11 points. One time against pressure, Kurz quietly spotted up in the corner opposite Notre Dame's bench before delivering another bucket from long-range. "Coach just told me to step up and shoot the ball confidently and that's just what I tried to do," Kurz said. "I just tried to take good shots and make them when they were open." Having to deal with another loss disappointed Mike Brey, but remembering the way Kurz battled was a bright spot, one the Irish coach would remember heading back to the National Invitation Tournament and beyond.